Reviewed by Doug Cooper
Stars Deborah Francois, Fernando Tielve, Michiel Huisman, Iddo Goldberg, Richard Lintern, Katia Winter, Alexis Dos Santos, Lucy Tillet, Al Weaver, Leonardo Brzezicki
Written by Alexis Dos Santos
Certification UK 15 | US R
Runtime 93 minutes
Directed by Alexis Dos Santos
Here's a quote from the press notes for this movie: "This is a fresh, innovative independent film from the UK, celebrating London's multiculturalism, the sensitivity of its youth, and youth everywhere. It is contemporary, it is timeless, and above all it is relevant." Bollocks. It'll be dated within about three months, and is lazy, self-indulgent and unremittingly tedious.
The "plot" could've been told in about half an hour and is padded out with long meaningless scenes of hardly anything happening. It could induce catatonia. Tielve plays Axl, a 20-year-old newcomer to London undecided about his sexuality. A shy and sensitive soul, he's in the capital to search for his long lost father, whom he believes to be Anthony (Lintern), a happily married 43-year-old estate agent with two young daughters. Axl pretends to be looking for flats in the hope of getting to know his "father" better, while living in a squat with liberated bohemian couple Mike and Hannah (Goldberg and Winter). They indulge in a distinctly unexciting three way sex session at one point.
A parallel story to this depicts Vera (Francois), a disatisfied bookshop employee and her tentative romance with a new man (Huisman). It's hardly a passionate encounter. The grungy London club scene is shown but one can hardly say that it is brought to life. The pacing is so slow and the characters so lacking in energy it never instills interest. That said the performers are natural and well cast, but much firmer and vigorous direction is needed. It's a mystery why Francois was attracted to this. This gifted young actress has given impressive performances in The Page Turner, Free Agents and The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life among others, but here she fails to shine. Pity, as she's normally very accomplished.
Perhaps it's quirky to see London presented in a shabby. colourless light but without a decent plot and a stronger hand at the helm this exceedingly boring tale simply lies and dies there. Avoid.